Prino’s 24-hour record

In 1989 Prino set a 24-hour world record for hitchhiking. It was mentioned in the 1991 UK edition of the Guinness Book of Records. (You can read the two letters from Guinness that resulted in the record being included here)

Note that if you look at an actual copy of the Guinness Book of Records from 1991 (on page 179), you will see that the people of Guinness wrongly converted the 2,318.4 km to 1,440.7 miles, but using the “spare” “6” in the text, Prino carefully converted this to the correct 1,440.6 miles.

Here are the full details of the four rides that gave him his “15 minutes of fame”.

Trip 10, ride 22

• Departure from Evzoni (GR-YU border) at 1989-07-04T21:35, odometer reading 108,256.3
• Arrival at Raststätte Siegburg, West-Germany at 1989-07-05T18:51, odometer reading 110,366.9
  
  
• Intermediate splits
  1. 1989-07-04T22:54 - 22:59 - Get drinks from booth
  2. 1989-07-05T00:00 - Odometer 108,491.0
  3. 1989-07-05T01:00 - 01:08 - Trouble with open roof
  4. 1989-07-05T03:34 - 03:45 - Petrol
  5. 1989-07-05T08:30 - 08:50 - Petrol
  6. 1989-07-05T09:51 - 09:58 - YU-A border, odometer 109,467.3
  7. 1989-07-05T11:10 - 11:14 - Coffee
  8. 1989-07-05T12:07 - 12:19 - A-D border, odometer 109,676.0
  9. 1989-07-05T12:14 - 12:47 - Coffee
  10. 1989-07-05T16:20 - 16:58 - Petrol and some rest
      
      
• Length of ride: 2,110.6 km
• Driving time: 19:20
• Average speed: 109.2 km/h
  
  
• Country splits
  1. Yugoslavia: 1,211.0 km, 11:34 hours driving time, 104.7 km/h
  2. Austria: 208.7 km, 2:05 driving time, 100.2 km/h
  3. Germany: 690.9 km, 5.41 driving time, 121.6 km/h
     
     
• Day splits
  1. 1989-07-04: 234.7 km, 2:20 driving time, 100.6 km/h
  2. 1989-07-05: 1875.9 km, 17:00 driving time, 110.3 km/h
     
     
• Driver: Neoklis Adamopoulis, from Leverkusen

Trip 10, ride 23

• Departure from Raststätte Siegburg, West-Germany at 1989-07-05T19:34, odometer reading 163.8
• Arrival at Raststätte Remscheid, West-Germany at 1989-07-05T20:03, odometer reading 217.3
• No intermediate splits
• Length of ride: 53.5 km
• Driving time: 0:29
• Average speed: 110.7 km/h
• No country splits
• No day splits
  
  
• Driver: Klaus Kraus, from Remscheid

Trip 10, ride 24

• Departure from Raststätte Remscheid, West-Germany at 1989-07-05T20:31, odometer reading 244,380.0
• Arrival at Raststätte Ostetal, West-Germany at 1989-07-05T23:06, odometer reading 244,723.0
  
  
• Intermediate splits
  1. 1989-07-05T21:35 - Odometer 244,516.0
  2. 1989-07-05T22:44 - 22:51 - Wash front windshield
     
     
• Length of ride: 343.0 km
• Driving time: 2:28
• Average speed: 139.1 km/h
• No country splits
• No day splits
  
  
• Driver: Ingpeer Meyer, from Kerpen

Initial 24-hour record: 2,300.1 km in a driving time of 20:53, giving an average speed of 110.1 km/h.

Trip 10, ride 25

• Departure from Raststätte Ostetal, West-Germany at 1989-07-05T23:30, odometer reading 209,774.0
• Arrival at Raststätte Hamburg-Stillhorn, West-Germany at 1989-07-06T00:02, odometer reading 209,821.0
  
  
• Intermediate splits
  1. 1989-07-05T24:00 - Odometer 209,820.0
     
     
• Length of ride: 47.0 km
• Driving time: 0:32
• Average speed: 88.1 km/h
• No country splits
  
  
• Day splits
  1. 1989-07-05: 46.0 km, 0:30 driving time, 92.0 km/h
  2. 1989-07-06: 1.0 km, 0:02 driving time, 30.0 km/h
     
     
• Driver: Hans-Werner Bukowski, from Lauenbrück

Final 24-hour record: 2,318.4 km in a driving time of 20:27, giving an average speed of 113.4 km/h.

Last updated on 4 September 2022 (Use typographical quotes)